Dr. Alexey Root

Richardson Public Librarian Vrena Patrick organized Chess Puzzles and Play from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, November 12, 2016. 44 library patrons attended, including eight students from Dr. Root’s ED 4358 and ED 4359 courses at UT Dallas. Dr. Alexey Root supervised the Chess Puzzles. Each puzzle sheet had four to six checkmate problems on it.

By completing one puzzle sheet, a patron was entered in a prize drawing. For patrons that wanted to see how many puzzles they could solve correctly, Dr. Root kept track of the number of puzzles solved by each patron on a dry erase board. Brianno, a child, solved 21 puzzles. Two adults solved 18 puzzles each. After solving chess puzzles, most library patrons challenged each other to chess games. There were usually about eight chess games going at once. UT Dallas chess team member FIDE master Alex Velikanov supervised those chess games. Since Dr. Root had brought various prizes (chess sets, T-shirts, medals) and the UT Dallas Chess Program had donated other prizes (USB drives shaped like chess queens, key chains shaped like chess queens), almost everyone who stayed until the 3:45 p.m. prize drawing (where one had to be present to win) got a prize. Dr. Root sold five copies of her latest book, Prepare With Chess Strategy. She autographed those books, autographed other items, and posed for many photos with library patrons.